Originally featured in Points West magazine in Summer 2014
Winold Reiss was a German born artist, who immigrated to the United States in 1913. He had studied fine art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, as well as commercial design at the School of Applied Arts, both in Munich, Germany. A celebrated portrait painter in New York, his first trip out West, in 1920, was inspired by German author Karl May’s popular novels—set in the American Old West. While in Montana, Reiss painted numerous portraits of the Blackfeet people. In 1927, the Great Northern Railway commissioned him to travel and paint along their route through Glacier National Park. The Railway used many of his portraits of Blackfeet Indians in their advertising campaigns, such as the poster pictured at right. Reiss continued to return to the West on painting trips through 1948.
Man and Woman Sign Talking showcases Reiss’s strong graphic style. Early on in his career, Reiss designed many interiors and exteriors of buildings. Reiss’s exposure to architectural design and art deco style can be seen in his preference for strong geometric shapes and color blocking, especially in the tipi background motif and the shawls of the figures.
Sign talking was used as a universal language among Native American Great Plains tribes. The Plains Indian sign languages were well in use before the arrival of Europeans to the continent. In this painting, the woman appears to use the sign for “alone”; however, the way in which the finger completes the motion is the final indicator of its meaning.
Winold Reiss (1886 – 1953). Woman and Man Sign Talking, ca. 1929. Gouache and pastel on Whatman board. Gift of W. Tjark Reiss. 9.71
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